


fo èirigh na grèine

by lightningstars



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, I love u, LMFAOOOOOO i havent written in 2 long, and this has such a Vibe and should be longer to really get into it, but i huh. i feel smth abt it whomst knows, pleaseeee read it and tell me what u think, so much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-05 17:45:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16372199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightningstars/pseuds/lightningstars
Summary: At night Rayla stares up at the stars. Claudia is in the next room over snoring loud enough for her to hear. There’s a desk by her with a pile of papers threatening to fall before the sun breaks. Underneath her there are people still moving around, a city full of anger and love. Underneath her there is a city full of people who love Van Gogh, who would’ve gone to the gallery and fallen in love with the painting Claudia did.She thinks about how once he said “the only time I feel alive is when I'm painting”.“I’m sorry then,” she whispers to no one “because what I am feeling right now is beyond living”rayla leaves to find peace, claudia doesn't leave and finds a roomate. they both find love





	fo èirigh na grèine

**Author's Note:**

> i love u boo
> 
> fo èirigh na grèine (the title) means underneath the sunrise according to google translate: scots gaelic (if its wrong lmk and i swear i'll change it)

In order of events this is how it happens: Rayla becomes an orphan, hooks up with 4 people in half a week, realizes she fucking hates everyone in her town, and goes to America to forget everything in the span of a month.

In order of events this is how it happens: Claudia is living on her own - technically but there is always someone at her apartment so does it count as ‘on her own’ - regardless no one else is paying rent and. And she is living on her own, gets a ice cream cake, and bumps into a stranger on the street, all in the span of a day.

Interesting to see how their lives work out. Ezran, ever the optimistic would say that it was fate and then Soren would jump in with a bad song about fate and love and it would go on from there. And later Claudia would be able to throw her head back and laugh along with them under the light of the room. And later Rayla wouldn’t even realize that the heavy load she was so used to carrying wasn’t there anymore, that she was able to breathe and not wonder if it was too strong to blow her family away. And later a lot of things would be different, and later it would feel right and it would feel like home and they would know home and _God_ , later it would be so very different.

But right now, Claudia almost bumps into Rayla, dropping her ice cream cake. She’s like a ghost, completely still in the space, watching the world around her. She has a cagey look to her, one that’s hiding secrets and bearing walls with set jaws but what Claudia realizes in a minute is that this girl is standing in the middle of the street, watching everything around her. Everyone else moves around her - that’s the thing about New Yorkers, they tend to learn to be fluid in motion. You have to be to survive a changing home, a non-stop moving city with a beating heart you could feel if you wanted to.

“I’m sorry” Claudia starts holding the cake properly. “I didn’t mean to bump into you”

“Don’ worry about it” the girl replies and yeah, it's not a surprise that it’s the accent that makes Claudia really look up first. She’s grown up in the city, she’s heard accents of all kinds before. But the girl’s voice is stark against the city air, blunt and defiant. It’s daring the city to follow her and it is undeniably very un-ghost like.  
“Alright then” Claudia starts. She realizes she’s been staring at the girl for too long and that must be coming off as creepy at the very least. She starts to walk away when she feels a hand on her side. It’s a gentle hand, a soft touch. Like blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, soft and quick touch. 

Claudia feels it.

“Sorry there but I’m a newcomer you know? Any chance you know the way to this place?” 

“Yeah I do it’s just a couple blocks from here. But mostly if you head that way” she points south “you’ll be able to find it”

“Thanks then” the girl says and her voice is so clear and at the same time isn’t. It’s a contradiction of itself.

Claudia blinks and her ghost girl has disappeared. She goes home wondering how such a stark voice belongs to a shadow.

+

Claudia finds her shadow at her bar. She walks in and does the same thing she did on the street, stands and just watches everyone. Not in a confused tourist type of way, but in a genuinely interested type of way. Like she wants to study people, like she wants to learn about them and know them without actually knowing them.

Claudia pretends not to notice her when she first walks up to the bar. If the ghost is surprised to see her, she doesn’t show it.

“Long Island Iced Tea” she asks and it isn’t even a minute later that Claudia is sliding it down to her. 

Then a beat of silence. And another one. And another one.

There aren’t enough customers to keep her busy and there isn’t anything to clean for once. But she can feel the ghost watching her and well. Claudia has never been good at silence.

“Do I get to know your name? Or,” _or do I keep seeing you as a ghost girl_

She takes another sip then, “Rayla”

Claudia nods enthusiastically and then points to herself “Claudia. I’m - yeah. I’m Claudia I mean”

Rayla smiles and it sort of reaches her eyes. Claudia doesn't know if she can count it if there's still a haunted look in the poor girl's eyes.

“So you’re still hanging around the city huh?” she asks trying to make conversation “Do you know for how much longer?”

“Why, is there a desperate rush to get rid of me already?” 

Claudia grins and it’s an easy smile that comes to her face. Rayla thinks for a second about that girl in Greece who had such a nice lilting smile it launched a thousand ships. 

“Yeah, well. Don’t tell but I secretly get paid more for every tourist I manage to drive out of here so y’know. The sooner you leave,” Claudia says rubbing her fingers together excitedly. 

For another second the girl doesn’t say anything but then Claudia can see a hint of a smile she’s biting back. If she didn’t hang out so many idiots and their weird sense of humor she probably wouldn’t have seen it at all.

“Well tough break,” Rayla says and she looks down at her glass. Her fingers touch the edges of the rim and she lets herself play with the cool surface. “I think I’m gonna be stickin’ around for a while”

Claudia hums contentedly but before she can say anything someone else is calling out to her. When she looks back Rayla is gone again, like the shadow she’s supposed to be.  
+

They meet in Central Park next time. Claudia supposes that she shouldn’t be too surprised to see her there; the park is known for attracting tourists and she usually stays away. But Soren had some game there, and he forgot his lunch and his wallet so well. 

But this time she does see her. Rayla, sitting on the grass, completely barefoot, wearing a snapback and shirt with holes so small at first it looks like there are stars on her. 

“Hey there”

“Hey” Rayla says and it’s only then that Claudia notices the camera she’s holding. 

“Oh shit am I in the way or something? I can move” she starts but then just looks around unsure of which way to head.

Rayla bites back a smile and pats the ground next to her “Nah you’re good don’t worry”

“So you take pictures too huh” Claudia asks “you’re really playing up the tourist angle”

Rayla laughs and it’s sort of a rusty laughter. Like she hasn’t done it in a bit and she’s using old pipes she forgot existed but she wants to use again. “I’m a photographer” she explains “I take pictures of shit and then. You know write a piece about it. Something that makes people feel good”

“You like it?”

Rayla shrugs and then looks down again. There’s the cagey look again, the one where she’ll bite off strangers for asking too many questions. Claudia’s used to strays though.

“Pays the bills”

“You’re living in a hotel right now”

“And they aren’t free either”

Claudia lets out a breath of air, looking around. There’s a couple of seconds of silence and she’s fairly certain that this is her cue to find an excuse to leave her alone. 

“You can stay” Rayla interrupts and then bites her lips again “if you want. You can stay” she says, her voice soft enough to join the breeze. She offers like she’s saying a prayer. Like she’s asking for a salvation.

Claudia’s never been good at saying no to a lost cause.

“Okay”

+

Rayla starts showing up at her bar more. Maybe it’s because she knows thats where Claudia absolutely will be. Usually she doesn’t stay too long, she shows up at around 10 pm and then leaves. Usually Claudia doesn’t notice her leaving but she tries. 

This is how they’ve been going though: at first awkward fumbling conversation about photos or New York. And then they’re arguing over the validity of _Friends_ and blueberries.

“I can’t believe this” Rayla pronounces “you live in New York and you still want to claim _Friends_ as authentic?”

“That has nothing to do with living in New York and everything to do with believing in good things”

“ _Friends_ is good now?”

“It is” Claudia says struggling for a minute “a classic. A show that you watch and ignore the problems of”

“A bad show you pretend isn’t” Rayla replies grinning at her triumphantly.

Claudia pointedly throws her rag at her instead. A comfortable silence falls over them as Claudia starts cleaning up around the bar.

“Well I should get going” Rayla says glancing at the clock. She’s lets out a sigh stumbling out of her stool.

“Woah” Claudia says her hands hovering around Rayla. “You alright there?”

Rayla nods tipsy but has a glazed look over her eyes. “Yeah I just gotta figure out how to get to the crap hotel. Craptel!” she whisper shouts “that’s what it is - a craptel!”

Claudia shakes her head amused. “Your craptel is all the way on the other side of town. I’m not sure you can get yourself there” she says and Rayla frowns.

“Guess I’ll just hang outside for the night then. Not the first time” 

Claudia bites her lips and then, “I can take you to home. It’s pretty close by and I got an extra space” Rayla stops and stares at her for a beat

“Come stay” Claudia says again softly

“Okay”

-

They don’t really formally talk about it. Rayla stays for the night. And the next night. And before long it’s been a month. 

Claudia shows her all the places she would’ve never found on her own. The hidden areas, the secret spots you discover after living for a couple of years. During the day they go around the city and Rayla takes pictures as Claudia helps make up stories about them. At night they go to Claudia’s bar and talk until it’s time for them to go home. 

-

She tells her about her family in sporadic feelings. About her father who she wants to hate but has never been able to, her mother she’s never met and wants to love. Underneath the starlight Claudia stands in front of her stove and talks about her brother who told her a dumb joke he heard from his boyfriend. 

“You want some waffles?” she asks and it’s 3:30 in the morning but Rayla agrees. “What about you” she asks, “what’s happened in Rayla’s life?”

“I had parents then I didn’t. I lived in a dumb town and now I live in a dumb city”

Claudia grins and hands her a plate. “No I meant like. Details y’know?”

“They had 10 fingers and toes, a nose and probably some hair. I dunno. I. I knew them but I didn’t so who knows”

Claudia grows quiet for a bit. “Alright” and then she looks properly at her “if you want to tell me about them I can listen. I can stay”

“Okay”

Underneath the night sky Rayla tells her the truth. She talks about her parents who liked her enough as a kid but then not so much as she grew up. She tells her about how her parents then stopped liking each other or maybe they had never liked each other or. Or who knows, she tells Claudia rolling her eyes with an unpleasant smile. “Who knows” she says again, “maybe I messed ‘em up”

Claudia reaches out to her hand, rubbing the knuckles lightly. _My ghost girl she thinks, my star of the night_ “You aren’t your parents mistake” 

Rayla looks into her eyes and believes her.

-

Some days they don’t see each other. Neither of them bother each other about it, but on those days there is a heavier weight on Claudia’s shoulders. On those days Rayla turns to tell her something only to realize there isn’t anyone there. Some days they don’t see each other and they miss the other like another limb.

Rayla goes to the store and finds art supplies. She learns to sit in the city and draw the life in air. At first she draws the buildings, the shops, the owners and their goods. She starts drawing the people next, quick glances of the man with two kids, of the girl with three bags of grocery, the kid smoking. 

“Hey,” she hears a voice behind her and finds Claudia grinning down at her. “God I didn’t know you drew”

“Yeah” she says and she looks back at her sketchbook “I haven’t in a while”

She starts drawing Claudia after that. Her waking up, making waffles. Her eyes under the moonlight, her eyes under the clouds; she learns they’re two different works of art. She learns to draw them by memory, her hand moving before her mind can. She doesn’t know what to do about this fact so she ignores it, pretends it isn’t happening.

She draws her with hair in her face, biting her lip when she’s studying a recipe, mixing drinks together, wearing her favorite jacket. She starts drawing Claudia in scenes she was never in. She’s standing on the street with her phone out, she’s sitting with a group of people, she’s a stranger walking by. 

She’s on every page, in every colour, everywhere like a bucket of paint on a page. Like a bucket of light and memories on a lifeforce. 

\- 

Eventually June turns into July into August. She’s been there for three months and she learns to meet Claudia’s life. 

Her brother is a man of love and joy. He helps Claudia with the bar when he can and he helps Rayla learn how to really survive New York. He drives them around when they need to and lets her use his gym for free.

She meets their two god-nephews, Callum and Ezran. She meets their parents, Harrow and Sarai and has to stop herself from begging them to adopt her. She meets Marcos, the boyfriend, and every other person in Claudia’s life.

It’s funny, she muses, how quickly she can befriend people she’s never known. How integrated they can become in her life and how she desperately hopes that they won’t leave. 

-

In September Claudia wakes her up to drag her to an art gallery. They stand in front of paintings and Claudia waits to see her reaction before saying anything. They take pictures in places without flash photography and run when they almost get caught. Claudia grabs her hand as she takes her from one art piece to the next, desperate to show her everything she learned, desperate to hear the slightest opinion Rayla has.

“This one’s my favorite” she stops at _The Cafe Terrace_ by Van Gogh. “When I was younger this used to hang in my house. I never knew anything about it but. If things got bad I would look at it and think yeah. I’ll get there someday. It’s the most beautiful art piece I’ve ever seen”

Rayla hums in agreement as she looks at Claudia. She’s standing tall with a river of hair pouring down her back, her eyes gazing in awe. She’s a vivid picture, her hands barely touching the painting, cheekbones made of sharp marble.

At night Rayla stares up at the stars. Claudia is in the next room over snoring loud enough for her to hear. There’s a desk by her with a pile of papers threatening to fall before the sun breaks. Underneath her there are people still moving around, a city full of anger and love. Underneath her there is a city full of people who love Van Gogh, who would’ve gone to the gallery and fallen in love with the painting Claudia did.

She thinks about how once he said “the only time I feel alive is when I'm painting”.

“I’m sorry then,” she whispers to no one “because what I am feeling right now is beyond living”

She falls asleep curled against a window thinking about replacing every Van Gogh painting with a picture of Claudia. 

\- 

Claudia almost dies on a Thursday before it’s even 9 am.

In a car accident, her body bloody and bruised she’s taken to the hospital. It’s not even 9:20 am when Rayla is already there refusing to leave. 

It’s a day and half later when she’s allowed to see her.

Claudia lays there still, not a single snore escaping her. She lays there with her eyes closed - her eyes with the wonderment and universe closed, bandaged and looking so, very, completely and utterly still.

Rayla feels gutted, her heart inside out. 

-

She’s there for a week. Claudia never once opens her eyes and after the 7th day Rayla breaks. 

God she thinks and then, out loud. 

“God,” she’s gotten used to the clean hospital smell and wants to scream. “I know we haven’t talked in a while, and I never wanted to come to you this way but” and there are tears and crying. She isn’t punching or screaming but there are tears and crying, her entire body racking. She’s begging in another beat, her head lowered asking for anything any God will give her. 

“Please I just. I never wanted anything from you, I agreed I wouldn’t ever bother you but. Shit I. Please she’s the one thing I never wanted gone, please you can’t do this to me” and now she’s collapsing onto the floor. 

“Please stay”

She falls asleep wilting like a flower without a sun. She falls asleep with a beg on her lips like a deserter who hasn’t drank water in days. Like a lost cause with everything still left to lose.

-

Claudia wakes up under fluorescent lights with a dry mouth.

Her body moves before her mind does.

She looks to find Rayla next to her bedside, quiet and curled up where she knew the girl would be. Taking up no space like a shadow. Like a dream she doesn’t quite remember but knows.

“Hey” she says and it’s soft like a breeze in Central Park. Like a love she isn’t sure of, like a quiet stillness in a home she misses like a phantom heart.

Rayla wakes up still and freezes. Her eyes are puffy, breath coming out in short steps.

 _Are you a dream_ she wonders, _a dream I imagined underneath the sky_

“Morning” her voice is rusty, like she hasn’t used it in a while. Like she forgot how to talk if Claudia wasn’t here to show her flowers she liked, or about the new show her favorite customer told her about. Like she forgot to exist if there was no universe for her to live in.

“You stayed” she says 

Claudia nods. Okay.

-

They go home in a while, holding onto each other’s hand tightly. On their way Claudia wonders how a shadow can have such a fierce grip. How a ghost can seem so alive.

“Y’kno you can draw me in the hospital now. Draw me all still and quiet - see you should be so grateful I’m giving you another angle to work with”

Rayla is quiet, moving around the apartment like a delicate leaf. 

“Ray?” Claudia asks and touches her back lightly “Ray, hey. I was just joking around”

“Don’t joke about that” she says and it isn’t a fight but there’s a heavy weight on her words. It takes Rayla another minute but she quietly adds in “I never want to see you so still”

Claudia nods swallowing down bile she didn’t know she had.

-

It’s October, than November, December and they’re in January. They hand out candy, dress up, forget to buy turkey, and exchange gifts.

It’s January and they’re walking through the streets, letting silence fall on them like a blanket of snow on a field. 

“Hey you know that day we bumped into each other?” Rayla asks. Claudia hums in affirmation “yeah that was a pretty good day”

-

Months pass and they still stay with each other. Rayla takes pictures and draws, Claudia takes care of her bar and helps make up stories with her.

Claudia wakes up one night and they drive to New Jersey to hike up the mountain.

Rayla is still like a ghost, her hair a hurricane of white starlight against the sky. She’s staring around her and thinks about every person who has felt the memories of the universe and thinks it doesn’t compare to Claudia’s. She’s a ghost who’s alive and real, a shadow of contradictions. A dream that slips away but is so loud and present in every place she walks in and it’s underneath the sunrise that Claudia understands.

It’s underneath the sunrise that she says softly “I think I might love you”

Rayla turns and thinks _you’re my dream._ “Good because I want to kiss you”

They kiss underneath the sunrise, with the colors of the world vivid around them. They kiss underneath the skylight of the world, underneath the memories and love the galaxy has. Underneath stars they can’t see, underneath the moon’s love and guidance. 

“Stay with me forever” 

“Okay”

**Author's Note:**

> ok. okay listen. i have not written anything in so long it hurts.
> 
> 2.) this is my first time EVER writing raydia so cut me sum slack lads and lassies
> 
> 3.) i'm writing this at midnight which is why it has such a ~voibe~ and also isnt longer so its proper and yea. i love u bros tho
> 
> 4.) please tell me what u think!! i love hearing thoughts, comments, critiques etc.


End file.
